


This Means War

by animeangelriku



Series: Puzzleshipping Advent [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: (she loves them tho and she knows they love each other), Atem gets competitive af, Boys Kissing, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Mama Mutou makes a small appearance, Snow, Snowball Fight, Winter, Yugi knows this and so now he's screwed, she scolds the boys for being too ridiculously adorable, they're also huge dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 09:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12932463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animeangelriku/pseuds/animeangelriku
Summary: Yugi should’ve known it was a bad idea to start a snowball war with Atem. It seems so obvious now, he doesn’t understand why he didn’t think this through before he cupped some snow in the palm of his hand and then shoved it into Atem’s face.





	This Means War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KamikazeWorld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KamikazeWorld/gifts).



> This is for Neko, because she gave me the idea to write it and, honestly, made it so much better than I would've been able to do it on my own.
> 
> You can also read this on my [Tumblr](http://animeangelriku.tumblr.com/post/168273883082/puzzleshipping-this-means-war)!

Yugi should’ve known it was a bad idea to start a snowball war with Atem. It seems so obvious now, he doesn’t understand why he didn’t think this through before he cupped some snow in the palm of his hand and then shoved it into Atem’s face. 

This is all his fault, really. 

They had been having a pleasant walk through the streets of Domino City, approaching a park that was mostly empty, save for a few children and their parents playing around. Mom had asked Yugi to go get some groceries for tomorrow’s dinner, and Atem had immediately offered to go with him. 

“If I didn’t know you any better,” Yugi had told him as Atem put on a scarf and a jacket, “I’d say this is only an excuse to be out there in the snow.”

“Maybe it’s an excuse to be out in the snow with you,” Atem had replied with a small smile on his face, and Yugi had grabbed his wrist and tugged him out of the game shop just as Mom screamed at them to get going already, Grandpa’s laughter echoing in the kitchen. 

It had been when they started walking by the park that Yugi had made such a rookie mistake.

He can’t even remember what they had been talking about; he just knows that Atem said something ridiculous or sappy—or _ridiculously sappy_ , gods, sometimes Atem will do it just to tease Yugi and it’s both the most maddening and endearing thing ever—and Yugi was laughing so hard that the only way he thought of to stop Atem from continuing was to practically shove a handful of snow (that he picked up from one of the benches of the park they were walking past) into his face. 

He should’ve _really_ thought that through before he did it. 

For a moment, they both stood frozen in place. Atem’s eyes and mouth were wide open in surprise and Yugi didn’t know whether he should laugh at his expression or apologize for it, but then Atem narrowed his eyes, and Yugi would recognize that look _anywhere._

This was _war._

By the time Atem managed to make his first snowball, Yugi had already run off to take cover, barely able to duck behind another bench before Atem could hit him. After a few throws between both of them, they had decided to move to an emptier part of the park so as not to accidentally hurt any of the children playing around or their parents. 

They had established a single rule: they couldn’t stay hidden in the same place for more than thirty seconds. Everything else was fair game. 

So now Yugi’s screwed.

This isn’t Atem’s first snowball war. His first one was actually almost a week ago, when he and Yugi hung out with Jonouchi, Honda, Ryou, and Otogi to plan what they could do for Anzu’s visit next month. Jonouchi had jokingly suggested they could just have a celebratory snowball war, and Atem had asked what that was. Of course, the boys had all agreed to _show_ Atem what a snowball war was, rather than tell him.

They had _quickly_ realized they should have told him instead. 

Yugi had never thought Atem could be so competitive. He took almost every single one of them out within a few minutes, and the boys had decided that if they were going to have any chance whatsoever to beat him, they had to team up. After what must’ve only been a few minutes—despite the fact that they felt like _hours_ —Yugi had finally been able to hit him and take him out. Atem had laughed and gracefully accepted his defeat, telling everyone he’d had a lot of fun, but Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda, Ryou, and Otogi had all learned their lesson.

And Yugi forgot it.

And now he is quite positively screwed.

 _Well,_ Yugi thinks as he scoops snow onto his hands and shapes it into a sphere, _if I’m going down, it’s not going to be without a fight._

He and Atem use practically the entire park as their battlefield, save for the areas occupied with children. They duck behind benches, they run past swings, and they crouch under slides while snowballs fly from one side of the park to the other one. Now that it’s just the two of them, Yugi finds that he’s doing better than he did during their all-out war last week, though maybe it’s because now he can fully focus on Atem’s movements and on looking out for only _his_ snowballs.

Then again, he’s spent the last two minutes just running from one hiding place to the next one, barely having time to make half a snowball when his thirty seconds are up and he has to get moving. 

“Is this your way of surrendering, Yugi?” Atem smugly calls out. “You could just say so, you know!”

Yugi’s about to peek his head out the side of the slide he’s currently using as cover to answer… until he realizes that’s probably what Atem expects. He probably has a snowball in hand, ready to throw it at Yugi as soon as he exposes himself.

“In your dreams!” he replies. Just as he imagined, a snowball flies by his head the second he runs to hide behind another bench.

Yugi hurriedly makes as many snowballs as he can to just throw them all one after the other one, hoping one of them will hit Atem. If he makes a couple, he can probably throw them as he moves to his next hiding spot. He’ll have only two or three seconds to hit Atem out in the open, and he’ll also be vulnerable to getting a snowball to the face, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take for the chance at victory.

With one snowball in hand, Yugi uses his other hand to grasp the bench’s backrest and pull himself up, lifting his throwing arm into the air to aim at—

Atem’s gone. 

He was crouching by the slides a few feet away from Yugi. And now he’s gone. 

_Where in the world did he—_

Yugi doesn’t even finish his thought before Atem is right next to him, tackling him and screaming, “GOTCHA!”

They both fall down onto the snow beneath them, Atem on top of Yugi, and Yugi’s laughing hysterically, trying to catch his breath while he slaps Atem’s chest. “That’s cheating!” he cries.

Atem is also laughing, and his voice is ecstatic and almost melodious when he speaks. “No, it’s not!” he argues. “I didn’t break the rules!” 

Yugi groans, but little laughs still come out of his lips, no matter how much he wants to pretend to be angry. “Fine, fine!” he says. “You win!” 

“Do I get a prize?” Atem asks, grinning down at Yugi. 

It’s like his words cast a spell upon them, or maybe just upon Yugi, because he suddenly realizes just how close Atem is to him. Their laughter quiets down until there’s no more noise between them, until Yugi can practically hear how fast his heart is beating inside his chest. 

It doesn’t get any easier, realizing that Atem has his own body. It still sometimes surprises Yugi—he’s still surprised by the fact that Atem is real, that he’s solid enough for Yugi to slap his chest and hold his hand and cup his jaw and caress his cheeks and run his fingers through his hair and _kiss_ him and just… touch him. 

Atem is ridiculously beautiful, and Yugi has always thought so. But there are times like this, with Atem on top of him and his hands on Yugi’s waist and a gentle smile on his face and his cheeks flushed from the cold and the softest expression of love in his eyes and the light of the setting sun above them, where he literally takes Yugi’s breath away. 

Despite the fact that he’s lying on a bank of snow, Yugi feels like he’s melting.

He leans in at the same time as Atem leans down, and their lips meet halfway.

Atem’s fingers tighten, only slightly, on Yugi’s waist, and Yugi grasps the lapels of Atem’s jacket to pull him closer. It makes them both sigh into the kiss, it makes Yugi’s blood thrum in his veins, it makes his heartbeat pound in his ears because he can’t believe how lucky he is, how grateful he is that Atem is here, that he’s here with Yugi, that he’s here to play silly snowball wars and tackle him into the snow and kiss him as the sun sets on the horizon. 

And Yugi loves him, goddammit all, he loves him so. 

When they break away, there’s this ephemeral moment in which Yugi wants to chase Atem’s mouth and kiss him again. But he knows it’s a never-ending cycle, so he might as well stop it before it even begins. Besides, he likes it when he gets to see the way Atem’s eyes focus on him again after they kiss.

“We…” Atem clears his throat. “We should head back.”

“It is getting late, isn’t it?” Yugi agrees. Atem gets back on his feet and then he holds out his hands to help Yugi stand up. The park is now completely empty, and so they’re free to continue holding each other’s hand as they make their way back to the game shop.

It’s only until they get home that they remember they were supposed to bring back the groceries Mom asked them to.

As expected, she’s not amused that they forgot to do the _one_ thing they left the house for. She narrows her eyes at them, and Yugi looks at the wooden spoon in her hand, because it looks like she has half a mind to smack him upside the head with it; but she doesn’t. She just sighs and tells Yugi, “You’ll go tomorrow morning, then. And _you,_ Atem, will stay home and help me.”

Yugi and Atem sneak a glance at each other. Then they both nod their agreement, and Yugi says, “Thank you, Mom,” stepping forward to kiss Mom’s cheek.

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, waving him aside with her wooden spoon. Even though she’s still frowning at Yugi, he can see the hint of a smile starting to curl her mouth. “Now change into some warm clothes before you catch a cold from all that snow!”

“I really thought she was going to smack us with that,” Atem murmurs as they’re walking up the stairs to Yugi’s room, leaning close to him so that no one else will hear him.

“Honestly,” Yugi confesses, “so did I.”

It wouldn’t have been all that unfair of her to do so—they _did_ forget to do the one thing she asked them to do, after all. 

But even if she had, it would’ve been worth it. _Nothing_ can take their snowball war away from them, or the way Atem tackled Yugi into the snow, or their kiss beneath the light of the setting sun. Nothing. 

“Just so you know,” Yugi whispers as they’re falling asleep later that night, his arms around Atem and Atem’s back pressed to his chest, “next time, you’re going down.”

He feels—more than he hears—Atem let out a soft, almost unconscious chuckle. “I look forward to it.”


End file.
